Germany’s Economics Minister Robert Habeck on Saturday called the coalition government’s agreement to reorient its trade policy in line with environmental concerns a historic milestone, as well as the announcement that the country will abandon the controversial Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).
«The reorientation of trade policy is a clear signal that the coalition wants to strengthen trade and collaboration on the basis of fairness and sustainability,» according to the minister.
Habeck called the withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty, which establishes a multilateral scheme for foreign investments in the energy industry and has long been criticized by The Greens and environmental organizations, «logical.»
The ECT allows energy companies, especially those involved in fossil fuels, to sue countries in a court system if they consider the legislation to be against their interests. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called the treaty a «serious obstacle to climate change mitigation».
The leader of the Greens’ parliamentary group, Katharina Dröge, had previously said that no other international agreement had given so many advantages to investors and that no other agreement has been more damaging to the climate, so the abandonment of the agreement is a «great signal» when the COP27 World Climate Conference is being held in Egypt.
«We are systematically aligning our trade policy with climate protection,» the minister and member of the Greens party explained in Singapore, where he is attending a conference of German companies in Asia-Pacific.
In addition, Habeck said that in order to strengthen trade relations, partnerships with Chile and Mexico must be established quickly to enable free and fair trade. He has also called for ratification of the Europe-Canada free trade agreement (CETA) and deepening of the partnership with the United States. «Especially in crisis, the answer is cooperation, not withdrawal,» he said.
The main theme of the Singapore economic conference is the question of how the dependence of individual countries, for example on oil and gas and other raw materials, can be reduced. In addition, the aim is to strengthen trade relations with the Asia-Pacific region.
